FAGGING
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—May I be permitted to point out that, as fagging does not take place at Taunton School, of which he is headmaster, the letter of your correspondent, Mr. H. Nicholson, was a piece of irrelevant public school propaganda ? . As such it contains two statements which should not pass without comment.
In the first place my own experience was that some 10 per cent. to 20 per cent. of the boys I met at Taunton had been distinctly unhappy in their early years, as I was myself ; there will always, however, be some boys who, having: won distinction undeserved from the public school system will give Unsolidited testimonials to their headmaster.
Secondly, with regard to the words " we are only too glad if we find a boy striking out a distinctive line for himself," I should-like to say that for no greater crime than open advocacy of SOcialism; Pacifism and co-education, I was continually reproached" for " ploughing a lonely furrow " and"' being no use to the school" ; I was constantly reminded that, as a missionary's -son I was living at the school on charity"; and my parents were informed that I could not become a prefect while I held my Socialist and Pacifist views.—
(Old Boy of Taunton School). Jesus College, Oxford.
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